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Ritz-Carlton Showcase Apartment by Frank Ponterio

Sometimes what you don’t want is more important than what you want. What designer Frank Ponterio didn’t envision in this space in the Ritz Carlton Residences in Chicago was “anything jumpy, jarring, or off-the-wall.” Hence, it is clean-lined with carefully chosen classic pieces. Here, Frank answers some questions about his timeless style and how he incorporated it into this comfortable and completely livable urban apartment.

TH: How did you begin to form a vision for this project?FP: For the most part, I wanted to design this like it would be my own in-town apartment. That would mean clean lined, tilted toward the masculine, not cluttered, and not necessarily feeling decorated but rather that we had collected and gathered things over time. There’s a heavy emphasis on artistry in the whole suite.

TH: The details in this apartment are exquisite. How did you go about collecting pieces to add to it?FP: There’s a beautiful handmade floor in the powder room that we designed in New Ravenna, which The Fine Line made for us. It’s stainless steel and marble tatami sticks—small slats of stone that have been cut up and put into a mosaic pattern. Then we have great Degournay custom silk–screened walls. We really tried to focus in on handmade details throughout the space. We’ve got a couple new furniture pieces from my furniture line, a new licensed line we’re doing for Avrett. They’re a great family company that’s been in Charleston for 27 years. They’ll be available at John Rosseli and Michael Taylor around the country. We are very excited about that new partnership. We have a new bed from them, a great console table in the bedroom, and a fantastic cocktail table with a chagrin top in the living room. In addition to that, we designed a new piece in the living room for our own private label. It’s walnut with horn handles, a bellum top, and metal gallery edges. Again, everything is handmade here in the States, by relatively local artists—that was important to me.

TH: How did these details tie into the general aesthetic of the apartment?FP: As far as the general aesthetic goes, beyond being a little more masculine and clean-lined, we didn’t want any big pops of color, or for one thing to scream louder than anything else in the room. We wanted balance. The palette is more neutral, but hopefully not boring. There’s a lot of texture, a lot of pattern. There will be a lot of tactile experiences for people in the space. The walls in the vestibule to the master bedroom are in cashmere. We’ve got great silk walls in some rooms, parchment in others. We really wanted to take advantage of some of the views that we have. This was designed as an in-town place to come to relax, and not have anything too jumpy, too jarring, too off-the-wall. We’re not trying to shock and awe anybody.

TH: How does all of this fabulous artwork tie into that? FP: I wanted to have a heavy emphasis on artwork. We spent a lot of time with a great art consultant out of L.A., Joanna Burke. The gala here benefits the Art Institute of Chicago. I’m a board member there, so it’s a double win. We have some pieces from artists that I own at home: a great Hiro Yokose, some Lillian Bassman prints. Also because of my tie to Lake Forest and historic preservation as well as this building itself, we were able to find original prints of historic plat surveys and landscape design along Chicago’s North Shore. I thought that was fitting, and those are scattered throughout.

There’s also a tilt toward a bit more of a modern line by displaying some new media throughout the apartment. We wanted to bridge that gap between historic and very current, very modern. That was important to do in this space.

TH: What were you hoping for guests to feel in this apartment?FP: I think that in most of my interiors, no matter how formal they are, people feel like they can actually interact with the things that we do. That they can put their feet up if they want to. They’re not afraid to sit on anything. That’s really important to me as far as the design sensibility—it would be tragic if people didn’t want to interact with the space.

As an expert in historic architecture and interiors, Frank wanted the space to represent fine living within a historical landscape. Taking his lead from the reconstructed building, he offers a modern translation of a 1920s European interior. “This was designed as an in-town place to relax,” he says.

For Frank, a board member of The Art Institute of Chicago, using art in design is a given. He used some of his own art collection in his design. Here, the painting over the demilune is by Jean Marc Louis; the sculpture is entitled “Burning Bush.”

The general aesthetic of the apartment, Frank says, is “a little more masculine, a little more clean-lined. We didn’t want any big pops of color, or for one thing to scream louder than anything else. We wanted balance.”